Encounter with Reality: Reagan and the Middle East During the First Term

The education of any US administration to the complexities of the ever-changing Middle East is an on-going experience. It ends only with the termination of that administration's tenure. In order for any earlier analysis of this evolutionary process to take place, the observer must take advantage of the most viable boundary in time. None seems less artificial than the deadline imposed by presidential elections. Moreover, the juxtaposition of the need to demonstrate accomplishments and suggest a course for four more years, with the potential of personnel reshuffles, suggests a possible turning point worthy of note. Hence the present study traces and attempts to analyze the Reagan administration's Middle East policy during its first four-year term of office.